Solid

What's up Met Fans, Willie here again. Great win today by us. Unfortunately due to an afternoon game tomorrow (this time, I checked ahead) there won't be much drinking going on tonight, but if I could, I would!

Tonight was Alay Soler's debut, and he seemed to be wracked with nerves in the first inning. I don't know why though. As my loyal readers all know, I'm a sensitive guy who cares deeply about all my players, so knowing that Soler might be a bit nervous, and knowing that he hails from Cuba, I decided to remodel the clubhouse into a Cuba theme for the night. I put up posters of Fidel Castro everywhere in the hopes that the image of his nation's leader would reassure him. But for some reason, looking at Fidel Castro seemed to make him more nervous! I know if I was playing in Cuba for the first time, I would love for pictures of George W. Bush to be in my clubhouse! And further, I put Castro as his catcher, but in between innings, Ramon told me that Soler kept asking him if he's related to Fidel and begged him not to kill his family. Ramon laughed about it but I didn't. If anyone on this ballclub is going to be asked for mercy, it is going to be me. I went over to Soler and told him that I call the shots around here, not Ramon Castro. Fortunately for all, Alay calmed down and pitched a solid next five innings.

As I'm sure you're all aware by now, we acquired Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez today via trade. You guys all got the scoop a couple of weeks back, and I hope you all did indeed buy your El Duque jerseys like I suggested. Since El Duque is one of a handful of aces in the game, we had to pay a lot, and we did, sending Jorge Julio (my best reliever next to Jose Valentin) to Arizona. Hopefully, El Duque will end up making this trade worthwhile.

A lot of people have asked me about Billy Wagner being used so often recently, and they're all wondering whether he'll be burned out if this keeps up. Well to them I say, I hear what you are saying. That's why tomorrow, Billy will be in center field (with instructions to only throw with his right hand), Carlos Beltran will be behind the plate, and Paul Lo Duca will go to the bullpen to be used as my closer. Jose Valentin will play second and also act as my bench and third base coach, and Julio Franco will go up and take Ron Darling's place in the announcer's booth. Either Ron or Jeremi Gonzalez will start tomorrow. Let's Go Mets!